Red Army
The Red Army was the national army of the Soviet Union from 1918-1991. It was formed during the Russian Civil War in 1918 from Bolshevik Red Guards by communist theorist Leon Trotsky. At first, the army had no military ranks, and was a voluntary group. By 1922, the Red Army became the official army of the Soviet Union, and would serve the country until 1991, when the Soviet Union would collapse. History Russian Civil War The Red Army fought against the Russian White Army from 1918-1922. The White Army (consisting of anti-communists, anti-bolsheviks, liberals, nationalists, monarchists, and conservatists) opposed the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution and wanted to stop them. Eventually, the Bolsheviks won the war and the Soviet Union was formed. World War II In 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, beginning the Winter War. Before the attack, the Red Army had suffered from Joseph Stalin's great purge, depleting the ranks of the Soviet military of experienced officers. During the Winter War, the Soviets suffered many losses, due to the guerilla and forest warfare tactics utilized by the Finnish Army. In the end, the Soviets did break the Finnish defense lines in Karelia. The Finnish Army was defeated but Great Britain and France forced the Soviet Union to stop the attack and agree to a peace treaty with the Finnish (Moscow Peace Treaty). War between Finland and the Soviet Union would resume in late June of 1941 when Finland attacked the USSR alongside Nazi Germany. Finland feared that the Soviet Union would attack their country again and allied with Germany, as part of a defensive war. The Finnish front from 1941-1944 is sometimes known as the Continuation War. The two countries would sign an armistice ending hostilities and force the Finnish to pursue German forces out of northern Finland for the remainder of the Second World War. The Red Army fought against Axis forces in 1941-1945 in what is referred to as the Great Patriotic War in Soviet and Russian historiography. A combined force of German, Italian, Romanian, and other armies attacked the Soviet Union as a part of Operation Barbarossa (the Invasion of the Soviet Union). At first, the Red Army suffered heavy losses from 1941-1942. The Cobra Unit, a multi-national special forces unit, was formed in 1942 during the Battle of Stalingrad. The tide of the Eastern Front turned in 1943, when the German Army was defeated in at Stalingrad. From 1944 to 1945, the Red Army pushed Axis forces across Soviet territory and Eastern Europe, all the way back to Germany. By the end of the war in Europe on May 8 1945, the Soviets had occupied most of Eastern Europe including the Axis nations of Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Shortly after the atomic bomings on Japan, the Red Army launched an invasion of Japanese held Manchuria and Korea. After World War II, many communist reigimes were propped up across Soviet occupied Eastern Europe. It also paved the way for Communist governments in China and the Korean peninsula Over 10 million Red Army soldiers died in this war. The Cold War The Red Army acted in many Eastern European countries. During the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Red Army created many nukes to rival the U.S. However, they also bluffed the number of functional nukes they possessed, leading to the Missile Gap. During the era, the Red Army invaded Hungary and Czechoslovakia in 1956 and 1968 to put down anti-Soviet movements. In August 1964, Naked Snake encountered the GRU forces of the Red Army during his infiltrations into Tselinoyarsk. During this time, the Red Army was also undergoing an internal squabble in regards to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's authority. After the San Hieronymo Peninsula was taken over by the CIA's FOX unit, in 1970, former members of the Army served under FOX's commander, Gene. During this event, Snake, now known as Big Boss, recruited members of the Red Army as allies in order to stop Gene and the other members of FOX. Numerous Soviet soldiers also accompanied the KGB agent Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zadornov to Nicaragua to take over the U.S. missile base located there.Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Kojima Productions (2010) It is left ambiguous whether the Soviet soldiers were Red Army members working in a joint task force with the KGB to accomplish the Soviet's goals, or if they were KGB agents themselves. They were eventually defeated by the Militaires Sans Frontières and the Sandinista National Liberation Front. during an attack in Afghanistan in 1984]] In 1979, alarmed at what was perceived to be a growing American influence in the Middle East, the Red Army invaded Afghanistan, with their 40th Army, being 100,000 strong, being directly involved in the affair. Originally, the troops made up all of the Baltic States under Soviet control, although by the time of 1984, they had largely Russian personnel making up the ground forces, with Ocelot implying that the shift was to ensure the soldiers didn't turn on each other due to the differing ethnicities, as well as to ensure they didn't hesitate to attack the enemy.Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Kojima Productions (2015). Ocelot (radio): A Soviet soldier... A lot of them came from Central Asia before, but lately they've been using more and more Russians. Simple really - there's less hesitation to pull the trigger if they're not fighting their own race. Morbid cynicism, but it gets results. That's humanity for you. In addition, from 1981 to March of 1984, the Soviets proceeded to lose at least 3900 men, about a hundred per month, either due to dying in combat against the Mujahideen or otherwise from loss of morale forcing them to be removed from the battlefield, as well as a platoon in Panjshir having a third of its forces replaced every half a year, even when killing more of the Mujahideen.Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Kojima Productions (2015). *'Soviet Soldier 1:' ...I got a letter from Grigorily. Sasha is dead. // Soviet Soldier 2: So he didn't make it... Damn it! // Soviet Soldier 1: And last week, the new guy lost it and got pulled out. It never stops... // Soviet Soldier 2: We're doing better than others. A comrade at the regimental headquarters told me a third of the platoon at Panjshir is replaced every six months. // Soviet Soldier 1: That many? // Soviet Soldier 2: Across the whole force, we lose over 100 men every month. It's been that way since the past three years. // Soviet Soldier 1: But we're killing more of them! // Soviet Soldier 2: I hear you, comrade. Calm down. // Soviet Soldier 1: It feels like we're getting nowhere... // Soviet soldier 2: Maybe I'll be next... // Soviet Soldier 1: Stop it. Ne Karkat'. However, due to the enormous costs of their military operations, as well as the West and Diamond Dogs supplying the Mujahadeen with weapons to defend themselves, the Red Army started a phased withdrawal in 1985 that lasted to 1989, when all of the Soviets were withdrawn. It was during this time where Ocelot perfected his torture techniques, as well as the time they encountered Venom Snake and the Diamond Dogs , who were operating in the area. End of the Red Army The Red Army played a role in the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt. On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Red Army dissolved. The remnants of the Army were absorbed into the armed forces of the successor states of the USSR. The majority went to the new Russian Federation. As a result of the Red Army's fall, several of the soldiers were also out of a job, so some either went into the mercenary business, such as Red Blaster and Shotmaker, or formed their own military groups in an attempt to restore Russia to its former glory, such as Colonel Sergei Gurlukovich. Some also ended up forming or otherwise joining crime syndicates, such as the Russian mafia. Former members *Sergei Gurlukovich (colonel) *Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin (colonel) *Ocelot (major) *Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov (major) *Red Blaster *Shotmaker *Boris Volgin *Skowronski (colonel) *Jonathan (Private First Class) *Boris Vyacheslavovich Popov Known equipment Pre-1964 *Mosin-Nagant Rifle 1970 *AK-47 Assault Rifle *Vz.61 Submachine Gun *M16A1 Assault Rifle (supplied by the FOX Unit) 1974 *RK-47 Assault Rifle *PKM Machine Gun *At least one Mi-24D Attack Helicopter 1984 *SVG-76 Assault Rifle *SVG-67 CS Assault Rifle *LPG-61 Machine Gun *Bambetov SV Sniper Rifle *Renov-ICKX Sniper Rifle *Riot Shield *Sz.-336 Submachine Gun *Kabarga-83 Shotgun *Killer Bee Missile Launcher (Western origin; possibly developed from U.S.-made Honey Bee) *GROM-11 Rocket Launcher *CGM-25 Anti-Tank Weapon (Western origin; unknown how acquired) *Zhizdra-45 Anti-Air Cannon *VOL-GA K12 Heavy Machine Gun *ZHUK BR-3 Armored Personnel Carrier *ZHUK RS-Z0 Self-Propelled Multiple Rocket Launcher *TT77 Nosorog Main Battle Tank *HP-48 Krokodil Attack Helicopter *M21 D-Mine (Western origin; unknown how acquired) *Hand Grenade (Western origin; unknown how acquired) *M2A-304 mortar (Western origin; mainstay since World War II) Propaganda [[file:VI SovietPoster TPP.png|thumb|Soviet-Afghani war-era propaganda poster, c'' 1984. It says "НАША СОЛИДАРНОСТЬ СОКРУШИТ ЗАГОВОРЩИКОВ!" The Russian's closest translation is "OUR SOLIDARITY WILL CRUSH CONSPIRATORS!"]] The Soviets made use of various methods of propaganda to promote their ideology, with the posters making prominent use of the color red due to their name and Communist ideology. A well-known use of such was propaganda posters. One such poster, published circa 1984 during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, depicted a red and white background with some white areas forming arrows and stars upon connecting with the red portions, five monochrome depictions of Soviet soldiers standing at attention in the background, as well as a colorized Soviet soldier prominently displayed on the poster giving a salute, with the soldier wearing a khaki uniform with a blue-striped telnyashka being visible underneath as well as a cap, an equipment harness and holster, and holding a SVG-76 Assault Rifle. At the bottom, in black-fond Russian Cyrillics, it says "НАША СОЛИДАРНОСТЬ СОКРУШИТ ЗАГОВОРЩИКОВ!", roughly translating to "OUR SOLIDARITY WILL CRUSH CONSPIRATORS!" However, the soldier's position has it partially obscuring the "ОЛИДА" in "СОЛИДАРНОСТЬ" and most of "СОКРУШИТ". The PF Diamond Dogs during their activities in Afghanistan stole several of them, and exploited the saluting pose of the soldier in front to use as additional camouflage for their Cardboard boxes to trick any Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan and bypass an alert. Besides the posters, they also made use of several billboards, which could be found prominently in areas like the Mountain Relay Base as well as the Afghanistan Central Base Camp. The latter location featured a billboard with three faces: one of a Soviet soldier, another of a goateed individual, and the last of a Muslim cleric, with six bars converging upward to a halo with five stars guiding the lines. Up top was Russian cyrillics in white font that read "Товарищи, стойте как один! Будьте главным фактором изменений в нашем новом обществе!" meaning "Comrades, stand as one! Be the main factor of change in our new society!", while at the bottom was presumably the Pashto equivalent. Another billboard, called "Ethnic Solidarity", located at the Mountain Relay Base, featured two hands shaking, a red and white flag near each arm, and a group of people above the hands, with the top being in Russian Cyrillics saying "НАША СОЛИДАРНОСТЬ СОКРУШИТ ЗАГОВОРЩИКОВ!" and the bottom in Pashto, presumably saying the same phrase. There was also a billboard with two smiling men as well. At the very least the Mountain Relay Base billboard was put up as recently as 1984, intended to promote solidarity between various Central Asian and Russian Communists. However, the Soviet soldiers generally considered the billboard a failure especially considering that the Soviet brass by that time were phasing out the Central Asian soldiers and replacing them with Russian-born soldiers via low morale due to the former group having too many ethnic attachments to the Afghans.''Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Kojima Productions (2015) Soviet Soldier 1: Hey, did you see the new board they put up at the relay base? // Soviet Soldier 2: Yeah. "Ethnic Solidarity." Who are they kidding? // Soviet Soldier 1: Right. And now the brass is prioritizing sending in more Russian-born guys instead of Central Asians. Those guys don't have the morale because ethnically they're close to the Afghans. // Soviet Soldier 2: Makes sense. // Soviet Soldier 1: Well, catch you later. // Soviet Soldier 2: Sure. Behind the scenes Former members of the Red Army, comprising male soldiers and both male and female officers, form the bulk of the main enemy force in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. They can also be recruited into the player's rebel faction. When in close combat with the player character, they will attempt to knock the player down, either by slashing them with a survival knife (if male), or by kneeing them in the groin (if female). In addition to the above, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus also features female Soviet soldiers. New voice acting was provided for the female soldiers' grunts when choked, hit, or knocked, although standard dialogue is reused from the female Soviet officers. Unlike their male counterparts, they lack a balaclava, and possess either brown, black, or blond hair. Some varieties of female soldier lack the standard brown uniform jacket, with their character descriptions stating that they had either laundered, lost, or thrown it away. The Red Army's 40th Army appeared in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, acted as the main enemy forces in Afghanistan, and were the only enemy soldiers in the game to not be either PFs themselves or otherwise affiliated with them (not counting the Marine Corps soldiers in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes). Notes and references External links *Red Army on Wikipedia *Soviet 40th Army on Wikipedia See also *Soviet officers *Soviet soldiers Category:Military Groups Category:Enemy soldiers